Archives for November 2022

MORBI: The contractors who carried out repairs of the ill-fated suspension bridge at Morbi in Gujarat were not qualified to carry out such jobs, the prosecution told a court here.

While the bridge flooring was replaced, its cable was not replaced and it could not take the weight of the changed flooring, the prosecution, citing a forensic report, told the magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

Chief Judicial Magistrate M J Khan remanded four of the arrested accused — two managers of the Oreva Group  and two sub-contractors who had repaired the bridge — in police custody till Saturday.

The court remanded five other arrested men, including security guards and ticket booking clerks, in judicial custody as police did not seek their custody, prosecutor H S Panchal said.

Police had on Monday booked nine persons under Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

The four accused remanded in police custody were OREVA managers Dipak Parekh and Dinesh Dave, and repairing contractors Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar, hired by the OREVA Group.

Citing a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report, Panchal told the court that forensic experts believed the main cable of the bridge snapped because of the weight of the new flooring.

“Though the FSL report was presented in a sealed cover, it was mentioned during the remand plea that the cables of the bridge were not replaced during the renovation and only flooring was changed, the weight of the bridge increased due to the four-layered aluminium sheets for the flooring and the cable snapped due to that weight,” Panchal told reporters.

The court was also informed that both the repairing contractors were “not qualified” to carry out such work. 

“Despite that, these contractors were given the bridge repair work in 2007 and then in 2022. So the accused’s custody was needed to find out what was the reason for choosing them and at whose instance they were chosen,” the prosecutor said.

Lucknow: A court here rejected the bail plea of Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case on Monday.

The court had reserved its order in the matter on October 12.

Passing the order, Special Judge of Enforcement Directorate (ED) matters Sanjay Shankar Pandey observed that the offence was serious in nature and hence, Kappan was not entitled to bail at this stage.

The ED had booked Kappan in the PMLA case for allegedly obtaining money from a foreign country illegally and utilising it in acts against the interest of the nation.

Kappan was arrested along with three others on October 6, 2020 while they were on their way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to report on the alleged gangrape and killing of a 19-year-old woman. He has been in jail since then.

Police had initially booked the journalist for offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Subsequently, the ED also lodged a case against him under the anti-money laundering law.

The federal agency submitted in the court that Kappan worked for the Tejas daily and was an active member of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI). It is alleged that he was asked to incite riots in Delhi in 2015.

It was revealed during the probe that an amount of Rs 1.38 crore was given to PFI members to disturb the communal harmony in the country after the Hathras case.

Kappan allegedly helped the PFI members to convert this black money into white.

The journalist had earlier obtained bail in the UAPA case from the Supreme Court.

A view of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Monday reserved its order on the issue of maintainability of an appeal challenging the acquittal of all 32 accused, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani, in the Babri mosque demolition case.

A Lucknow bench of justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav passed the order on the appeal by two Ayodhya residents Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad.

The other leaders whose acquittal has been challenged are the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, senior BJP leaders MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and Sadhvi Ritambhara.

The duo alleged in the petition that they were witnesses in the trial against the accused and “victims” of the demolition of the disputed structure.

In its objection, the state government and the CBI had stressed that the two appellants were not complainants or victims in the case and as such they cannot appeal as a stranger against the verdict of the trial court.

After hearing the arguments of the parties, the bench reserved its order.

The Babri mosque was demolished by ‘karsewaks’ on December 6, 1992. After a long legal battle, the special CBI court on September 30, 2020 pronounced the judgment in the criminal trial and acquitted all the accused.

The trial judge had refused to believe newspaper cuttings and video clips as evidence as the originals of the same were not produced, while the entire edifice of the case rested on these pieces of documentary evidence.

The trial judge had also held that the CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of mind with karsewaks who demolished the structure.

Assailing the findings of the trial court, the appellants have pleaded that the trial court committed an error in not convicting the accused persons, whereas ample evidence was on record.

In the appeal, the appellants have urged that the judgment of September 30, 2020 be set aside.

On September 5, the CBI had filed a written preliminary objection against the maintainability of the appeal. The appellants filed their rejoinder in the court on Monday and concluded their arguments.

Mehul Choksi

New Delhi: Sebi on Monday barred fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi from the securities markets for 10 years and imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on him for indulging in fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd.

He has been directed to pay the penalty within 45 days, as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) order.

Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi. Both of whom are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.

Both Choksi and Modi fled India after the PNB scam came to light in early 2018. While Choksi is said to be in Antigua and Barbuda, Modi is lodged in a British jail and has challenged India’s extradition request.

The present proceedings emanate from a common show cause notice issued by Sebi in May 2022 against Choksi pursuant to an investigation by the regulator into the alleged manipulative trading in the scrip of Gitanjali Gems. The regulator conducted an investigation into the trading activities of certain entities in the scrip of the company for the period July 2011 to January 2012.

In its order, Sebi said that Choksi had funded a set of 15 entities known as ‘front entities’, who were directly or indirectly connected with him and with each other and who had taken position in the scrip of Gitanjali Gems both in the cash and derivative segments during the investigation period. He had used them as front entities for manipulation in the company’s scrip.

It was observed that the fund transfers by the company to front entities were to the extent of Rs 77.44 crore, out of which funds to the tune of Rs 13.34 crore were used by front entities to trade in the scrip.

The regulator noted that immediately prior to the investigation period, the shares of Gitanjali Gems, excluding promoter holding and holdings of banks/ financial institutions/ FPIs, available to the general investors was 28.96 per cent for the quarter ended June 2011. This was reduced to 19.71 per cent in the quarter ended September 2011. Subsequently, the shares available to general investors increased to 25.36 per cent post the investigation period.

This indicates that Choksi, through front entities, tried to corner the shares available in the market during the investigation period to reduce the shares available for general investors which subsequently increased after the front entities sold the shares in the market. Further, the front entities cornered the position limits in the scrip of Gitanjali Gems by building up substantially large position in the derivatives segment.

“I find that the above mentioned findings coupled with the noticee’s (Mehul C Choksi) failure to rebut the said findings, clearly establishes the noticee’s role in creation of false and misleading appearance of trading in the scrip of GGL by using and funding the front entities in executing manipulated trades.

“I thus find that the noticee has violated the provisions of… PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) Regulations,” Sebi Whole Time Member Ashwani Bhatia said in his 20-page order.

Accordingly, the regulator has restrained Choksi “from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever and is further prohibited from accessing the securities market, for a period of ten years … and the noticee shall pay a monetary penalty of Rs 5 crore.”

In February this year, Sebi had prohibited Choksi from the securities markets for one year and levied a fine of Rs 1.5 crore on him for violating insider trading rules in the matter of Gitanjali Gems.

In February 2020, the regulator slapped a total fine of Rs 5 crore on Choksi, Gitanjali Gems and another individual for violating various regulations, including listing norms, in connection with the massive fraud on PNB.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday searched the houses of The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and deputy editor M K Venu in connection with a now retracted story related to BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya, officials said.

A senior police officer said electronic devices belonging to the two senior editors of the news portal will be examined.

No arrests have been made yet in the case, the officer said.

Police had on Saturday filed an FIR against the news portal and its editors on a complaint by Malviya accusing the media outlet of “cheating and forgery” and “tarnishing” his reputation.

Malviya had on Friday said he would pursue criminal and civil proceedings against the portal over stories, since retracted, that insinuated that the BJP leader enjoyed the privilege on Meta platforms of having any post taken down which he believed was against the BJP’s interests.

Malviya’s complaint was filed with Delhi Police’s special commissioner (crime) against The Wire, its founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, the Foundation for Independent Journalism and other unknown people.

The Wire has also filed a police complaint against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with the story related to Malviya.

Morbi: Shivam, aged 10 years, was enjoying the thrill of the “Jhulta pool” or suspension bridge, a famous tourist spot in Morbi, with his family members as he wanted to enjoy Diwali vacations, but hours later he returned to Rajkot with bodies of his parents and brother- all victims of the bridge collapse incident in which 134 people lost their lives.

Shivam survived as he caught hold of a snapped cable but his parents and elder brother were not so lucky.

For Amina Banu also the visit to the bridge turned into a nightmare that she will perhaps not be able to forget in her life. She had gone to the bridge with 36 people from her extended family, six of whom died in the tragedy.

Rajkot BJP MP Mohan Kundariya told PTI that he lost 12 relatives in the tragedy.

Many survivors have lost more than one member of their families in the tragedy.

“I went to the bridge with 36 people from my family along with my children. Six members of my family including my cousin and her children died in the incident,” Banu said.

Recalling the horrific incident, Banu said nobody came for help initially and they were on their own.

“They charged a ticket of Rs 17 per person. Why did the company allow so many people on the bridge? The company said they had spent Rs 2 crore on renovating the bridge. Is the life of people worth Rs 17?” she asked.

A resident of Rajkot, Shivam was visiting his maternal grandparents in Morbi. He, his parents, and his elder brother were on the bridge which was crammed with people when the tragedy struck on Sunday evening.

“There was a huge crowd when the bridge suddenly collapsed. I survived because I caught hold of a hanging cable and slowly climbed up. But my brother, father and mother are still missing,” he told reporters.

Later, his relatives from Rajkot rushed to Morbi and found the bodies of Shivam’s missing family members among those who were fished out of the river.

The bodies were taken to Rajkot with the young child accompanying them.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, some youngsters were seen kicking and shaking cables of the bridge apparently to scare other tourists, minutes before the collapse.

One of the survivors Mehul Raval said there were at least 300 people on the bridge when its cables snapped and it collapsed into the river.

“The bridge suddenly caved in when we were on it. All the people fell into the river. The bridge collapsed mainly because it was overcrowded,” Raval told reporters at the Morbi civil hospital, Mohan Kundariya told PTI that he lost 12 relatives in the tragedy.

“They had come to the picnic spot on Sunday but they perished in the tragedy,” he said.

A Morbi resident also said there were at least 300 people on the bridge at the time of the incident.

Ironically, the bridge was reopened for the public a few days back after renovation, he said.

“Majority of the victims were children who were enjoying Diwali vacation. Locals rushed to the spot immediately after the incident and pulled out many people from the river alive,” he said.

Another resident said the incident opened the wounds of the Machchhu dam tragedy of 1979 when thousands of residents died in floods.

“All the residents living nearby the river came for rescue and saved many lives. This is the first major incident in Morbi after the 1979 dam breach. This bridge collapsed due to overcrowding. The rescue was hampered because of low light in the evening,” he said.

Former BJP MLA of Morbi, Kanti Amrutiya, also joined local rescue teams.

“I pulled out many people alive, but many others were already dead when they were pulled out. Everyone is doing their bit to help people,” he said.

The nature and scope of the tragedy has shaken the nation.

The Morbi district website described the suspension bridge as an engineering marvel built at the turn of the century, which reflects the progressive and scientific nature of the rulers of Morbi.

This was built to give a unique identity to Morbi using the latest technology available in those days, in Europe. The bridge was 1.25 metre wide and spans 233 metre on the Machchhu river connecting Darbargadh Palace and Lakhdhirji Engineering College, it says.

Kochi: A Kerala court on Monday framed charges of destruction of evidence against actor Dileep in the 2017 actress assault case in which he is one of the accused.

The court framed charges under Sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 204 (destruction of electronic record or document to prevent its production as evidence) of the Indian Penal Code against the actor and his businessman-friend Sarath, Dileep’s lawyer Philip T Varghese said.

The court read out the charges to the actor and his friend who denied the same and thereafter, the case was listed on November 3 for scheduling of witnesses by the prosecution, Varghese said.

From November 10 onwards, the examination of witnesses in connection with these two additional charges would commence, the lawyer said.

On October 28, the court had dismissed the actor and his friend’s pleas in which they had claimed that the charges were not made out against them.

These charges were invoked against them by the police in an additional charge sheet filed by it in July this year after carrying out a further probe into the 2017 case based on certain revelations made by director Balachandra Kumar.

The sexual assault survivor, an actress who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested in her car for two hours by the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.

The entire act was filmed by the accused to blackmail the actress, according to the prosecution. There are 10 accused in the case.